James W. Ziglar

You are here

Experts & Staff

James W. Ziglar

James W. Ziglar, former Commissioner of the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), is a Senior Fellow at MPI, where his work focuses on U.S. immigration policy, border control, and security initiatives.

Prior to joining MPI, Mr. Ziglar was President and CEO of Cross Match Technologies. From 1998-2001, he served as Sergeant at Arms of the United States Senate, a position in which he served as the US Senate’s chief operating officer, top protocol officer, and chief law enforcement officer. He left that post in 2001 when President George W. Bush appointed him Commissioner of the INS, a position he held until December 2002 when the agency was dissolved and its missions transferred to the new Department of Homeland Security.

Mr. Ziglar has more than 40 years of experience in management, finance, law, and public policy, spending 17 years as an investment banker and eight years as a practicing lawyer. He began his law career as a clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justice Harry Blackmun. He later was Distinguished Visiting Professor of Law at the George Washington University Law School, where he taught immigration law, and was a Fellow at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government Institute of Politics. Mr. Ziglar served as Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Water and Science in the Reagan administration.

Among his many appointments to outside boards, he previously served as a Director of the National Immigration Forum, Dui Hua Foundation, and MPI. He also was a member of the MPI-convened Independent Task Force on Immigration and America’s Future. He presently serves as a member of the Board of Human Rights First and ImmigrationWorks USA.